Blank Pages Global

Blank Pages Global e.V. is an innovative platform conceived as a space where people from all over the world can share their voices through artistic, cultural, and creative expression in a global context. The goal of our platform is to promote intercultural connections and critical thinking worldwide among people from different backgrounds and encourage them to cross and challenge the physical and metaphorical borders surrounding them. Blank Pages Global e.V. empowers individuals from diverse backgrounds by promoting active and continuous dialogue through free creative expression. This expression is not limited to a specific language or available media, and includes all those who do not speak majority languages, lack educational opportunities, or are illiterate according to contemporary societies and current colonial systems. We believe in the universality, uniqueness, and accessibility of creative expression, which can overcome the obstacles and structural differences imposed on people by their societies, inspiring hope and fostering a sense of empowerment. The purpose of Blank Pages Global e.V. is realised in particular through the conception, organisation, and promotion of workshops, conferences, youth exchanges, mobility opportunities at transcontinental levels, higher education opportunities, vocational education and training, transnational learning mobility projects, and citizen participation processes. We believe that there is a need for new spaces of dialogue and new perspectives on the future of the world that we want to create together. We are committed to the creation and implementation of such spaces by exploring new forms of expression and the evolution of current and future languages, as well as by preserving creative expression through exhibitions, publications, awareness-raising campaigns, and public conferences. We commit to fostering democratic, transversal, and inclusive art-based approaches and other creative expressions (including innovation), formal and non-formal education methodologies, and open-source educational materials based on the principles of openness, transcultural dialogue, pluralism, freedom of choice, and cosmopolitanism, through organising, participating in, and promoting conferences, publications, editorial contributions, audiovisual intellectual outputs, exhibitions, calls for ideas, hackathons, transcultural events, art exhibitions, and outreach events. Objectives of Blank Pages Global e.V. The organisation has the following objectives: ​• To provide a cosmopolitan platform and an open community through online and offline systems, spreading information to facilitate participation. ​• To promote free artistic, cultural, and creative expression as a medium to build transcultural connections and dialogue through the organisation of workshops, outreach events, summer schools, conferences, specific projects, and cultural initiatives. ​• To create, disseminate, and empower individuals, groups, and communities through inclusive and innovative educational methods, including non-formal education methodologies, human rights education, and youth work principles. ​• To provide an open-source platform for methodologies and materials in education, training, youth work, and advocacy, particularly regarding human rights and peace education. ​• To provide an online publishing, creative, and networking platform that allows contributors and members worldwide to share their work, engage in creative expression, and connect. ​• To raise public and political awareness of inclusive democracy, human rights, freedom, peace culture, and cosmopolitan citizenship for all people. ​• To collaborate with any local/international organisations, informal groups, movements, and private citizens whose aims are similar to those of our organisation and are ethically compatible with them. ​• To encourage and promote participatory and arts-based research in education, youth work, cooperation, social inclusion, and other sectors. ​• To advocate freedom of movement, life choice, identity (including its transformation), and expression through public campaigns, policy dialogue and related initiatives, publications, articles, conferences, art exhibitions, and debates in multiple languages. Experience and mission of the organisation related to cooperation between the Programme and Partner countries within Erasmus+ and/or the European Solidarity Corps. The activities of Blank Pages Global e.V. initially arose within the context of the European Master in Migration and Intercultural Relations (EMMIR), the first African-European-Asian Erasmus Mundus Master Course in migration studies. This programme is jointly run by three African, four European, and two Asian partners, facilitated by a wider network of associate partners. As members of the growing platform that now also acts as a civil society organisation and is still aligned with the principles behind the Erasmus Mundus global programme, we are part of several Erasmus projects across the European continent and beyond. The overall aim of all the projects its members have been involved in is to support local communities globally, focusing on creating fair opportunities for education and collaboration, especially in contexts where basic needs are not easily accessible, and the freedom of expression is consequently limited, such as in detention centres, refugee camps, and border areas. We strive to support young and older people from all over the world, including those with fewer opportunities and in marginal conditions, regardless of their geographical origins, socio-economic background, nationality, faith, or sexual orientation. In order to do so, we specifically work within the framework of the main national and European policy documents, programmes, and strategies, in particular, the “Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Inclusion and Diversity Strategy”, the “European Youth Strategy”, the Article 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which encourages youth participation in democratic life in Europe, the Youth Participation Strategy developed by SALTO Participation and Information Resource Centre, the European Agenda for Culture, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as adopted by all United Nations Member States. In all our activities, we embrace and promote inclusion, gender equality, and intersectional perspectives on the equal treatment of people by avoiding favouritism, nepotism, or discriminatory behaviour at all levels. We aim to promote equal access and opportunities to all interested people and members, regardless of any related background or structural conditions.